Can we not simply have non-copy protected games that retail for no more than $30? We can back them up, they can sell well, I don't give a rip what the reasons for $50 games are, I don't care how ignorant this sounds.

If they aren't worth $50 to you - don't buy em. You can't be addicted to em. They'll be $30 or less in 6 months anyway.

Who makes the money from $55? Who goes home rich? How many celebrity game developers are still doing donuts in Ferrari's these days (figure of speech, not necessarily statement of irony)?

Generally publishers and retail stores. Though of course there is id, EA, Epic etc

Do we somehow believe it to be a right to play a game without the CD simply because there exists data on our hard drives from some lengthy and inconvenient installation, therefore we crack the executables, therefore we steal the games online?

Yes, largely people do. I can steal largely anonymously therefore I will is the pre-dominant characteristic of most PC Gamers. Though naturally they have a flexible definition of 'steal' so that obtaining the game without paying the asking price is not stealing.

Do the consoles suffer any less from this?

Yes

Deaf ears, money, grotesquely overweight bastards in cheap Italian suits doing what they call 'business'... that's all it is anymore.

its the western dream, largely invented in america.

Fuck the Communists, fuck the Capitalists, fuck the Materialists who come up with all this shit. I make $3.85USD an hour after taxes working for an executive board who’ll pay themselves millions. Then with that slave-money I buy this trash from another exploitive executive board and I can't make it fucking stop.

Don't buy the games. Don't buy the games. Don't buy the games.

There's nearly one major shopping holiday for every month now and they need it that way. January brings New Year, Boxing Day, my father's birthday; February brings Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day; in March it's my birthday and even St. Patty's for liquor, sweets, and cards now... All of which in some part of the world are now exploited and raped into major shopping occasions. This is on topic people, you know it is. They print the fucking money - you can't 'vote with your wallet'.

Yes you can. Doesn't history teach you anything? You can't do it individually, but if $50 is too high a price for everyone to pay then the companies will go bust. If you genuinely think that $30 is a fair price for a game, never buy a game for more. Unless I suppose you like knowingly being ripped off.

Ooh! Ooh! I know! Individualized RFID chips in every CD! That's the ticket! Individualized mandatory online registration! That'll solve this issue of 'piracy'! Bibles off one side of the boat, opium off the other! Who needs the American ideal! We're a 'western' nation now!

Er isn't the american ideal to screw everybody else for as much money as you like with no interference from govt/international law etc etc.

from CrossNews boards the discussion boards for Concerned Christian Gamers

Why bother with even trying to see their side because it's not like you're going to convince the gamers one way or another. They're not going to change their minds for anything. Games are good to them and that's all there is to it. Period

Stuff you watch and read really does affect you. This isn't a nutter speaking - well OK in some senses maybe - its just common sense and science. Germany wasn't suddenly possessed of racist demons in the 1930's it was culturally mediated.

I personally feel that we'd be better off teaching logic, reasoning and media awareness in schools - apart from anything the Creationist Museum would be dead if we had a media aware logical population - but the oft repeated gamers cry of 'you just don't understand me; and anyway I never shot no-one' is just self-indulgent twaddle. Parents *do* understand kids (especially teenagers between the ages of 14 and 19) - they act (in general) - not out of ignorance but out of love. And most adults are in fact parents. If you wish to argue with someone that cares about you that you *should* be able to play, for example, Doom3 then do so, but argue on a basis that engages with their real concerns and with respect for them. Failure to do so invites disrespect for you.

John Kane III clearly has no understanding of Christian objections to Doom3 (in fact he says so) and yet feels fit to say 'I don't understand what these guys are saying - but its wrong' 'Oh, and appropos of nothing, the game is too dark'. This op could have done with some severe ed.

And I probably should have mentioned that when I look at when game engines are done and how long it takes to create the artwork, models, world, story etc I'm not sure that even in the cutting edge world of game development the engine is the limiting factor.

Surely designing a engine from scratch with certain features in mind would be easier than trying to add more and more features to an existing engine to allow it to do something it wasn't originally designed to do.

Not only do most licenses have similar terms, the quote given to evidence the suggestion that the EULA maybe illegal in the uk concludes

BECAUSE SOME STATES OR JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR THE LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, IN SUCH STATES OR JURISDICTIONS, VALVE, ITS LICENSORS, AND THEIR AFFILIATES LIABILITY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW